WTF WTMJ?

Once upon a time the local NBC station in Milwaukee was considered level-headed and fair-minded. It lead in local news and was considered unbeatable.

Well, those times are over. Now that WISN is beating them in almost every timeslot save for the 10 o'clock news, they're pandering to the fearmongers. Within the first ten minutes tonight, they aired a story about some woman who is shunning NBC's own upcoming "limited run" series The Book of Daniel because she feels that it was wrongly presented to her as a pro-family show.

AFA much?

Um...no. It's about an Episcopalian priest with a Log Cabin son, another one who is sleeping with the Bishop's daughter, a drug dealing daughter, and an alcoholic wife, who sorts out his problems by talking to Jesus. It's probably more true to life than 7th Heaven, to be honest. Unfortunately, the problem when you do shows that paint a portrait of life being far from sweet, is that it tends to upset those who probably would be best served by seeing their flaws all over the television.

Never mind the fact that the lady said that with her umpteen children that she "barely has time to watch television," WTMJ still felt that her opinion needed to be aired. Now, pardon me for being a cold cynic here, but this is just asinine. You're offering airtime to somebody who wouldn't normally watch television so that she can complain about a programme that she wouldn't likely be able to watch anyway?

In their defense, the director of programming basically said in a (puff piece) interview that "viewers can decide for themselves." Well if that was the case, then air the show and SHUT UP about it. You're not owned by NBC, so don't go disguising promo material as a "report."

This is really just the most recent dismaying occurance that I've seen at WTMJ. For the past week, they've been beating the pearl-clutching drum, which is quite surprising since Milwaukee is basically a town where people say "believe what you want to believe, just don't thrust it in my face." Yesterday, they were obsessed with what possible repercussions the recent beating attack would have on Milwaukee's image across the nation since apparently the story was carried on the Miami Herald's and Washington Post's websites.

Earth to WTMJ's news department: Nobody cares. This is Milwaukee. The city's image outside of the Midwest is basically Happy Days and Laverne & Shirley. Don't even get me started on what many gay men think about the city that let Jeffrey Dahmer run amok. You need to convince the world that you aren't basically a bunch of yokels just off the farm.

But feel free to air reports wherein reporters call people "slimeballs." (What happened to the "balanced coverage" you tout in your ads?) See what good it does you. You know that you're slipping and you can try the tactic of being bombastic and mortified to try to edge your way to the top. Never mind that it never works in the long run.

What does it say about a town where the local NBC station resembles Fox News and the local Fox station (which is owned by Newscorp itself) is pretty even-handed? Ponder that, JBG.